The library system is moving to a new mobile app! The current library mobile app will not be available after February. This only relates to the library’s mobile app (used on phones and tablets). You can still connect to the library through your desktop, laptop, or mobile device’s web browser at https://menlopark.bibliocommons.com/ Projected date for the new mobile app is February. We apologize for the inconvenience

Fresh Off the Boat : A Memoir

Random House, Inc.NOW AN ORIGINAL SERIES ON ABC • “Just may be the best new comedy of [the year] . . . based on restaurateur Eddie Huang’s memoir of the same name . . . [a] classic fresh-out-of-water comedy.”—People“Bawdy and frequently hilarious . . . a surprisingly sophisticated memoir about race and assimilation in America . . . as much James Baldwin and Jay-Z as Amy Tan . . . rowdy [and] vital . . . It’s a book about fitting in by not fitting in at all.”—Dwight Garner, TheNew York TimesNATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

Assimilating ain’t easy. Eddie Huang was raised by a wild family of FOB (“fresh off the boat”) immigrants—his father a cocksure restaurateur with a dark past back in Taiwan, his mother a fierce protector and constant threat. Young Eddie tried his hand at everything mainstream America threw his way, from white Jesus to macaroni and cheese, but finally found his home as leader of a rainbow coalition of lost boys up to no good: skate punks, dealers, hip-hop junkies, and sneaker freaks. This is the story of a Chinese-American kid in a could-be-anywhere cul-de-sac blazing his way through America’s deviant subcultures, trying to find himself, ten thousand miles from his legacy and anchored only by his conflicted love for his family and his passion for food. Funny, moving, and stylistically inventive, Fresh Off the Boat is more than a radical reimagining of the immigrant memoir—it’s the exhilarating story of every American outsider who finds his destiny in the margins.

Praise for Fresh Off the Boat

“Brash and funny . . . outrageous, courageous, moving, ironic and true.”—New York Times Book Review

“Mercilessly funny and provocative, Fresh Off the Boat is also a serious piece of work. Eddie Huang is hunting nothing less than Big Game here. He does everything with style.”—Anthony Bourdain “Uproariously funny . . . emotionally honest.”—Chicago Tribune “Huang is a fearless raconteur. [His] writing is at once hilarious and provocative; his incisive wit pulls through like a perfect plate of dan dan noodles.”—Interview “Although writing a memoir is an audacious act for a thirty-year-old, it is not nearly as audacious as some of the things Huang did and survived even earlier. . . . Whatever he ends up doing, you can be sure it won’t look or sound like anything that’s come before. A single, kinetic passage from Fresh Off the Boat . . . is all you need to get that straight.”—Bookforum

From the Hardcover edition.

Baker & TaylorA Taiwanese-American rebel restauranteur chronicles his rise to success from his difficult childhood in the American South to his turn as a drug dealer who embraced rap culture and more.

This disjointed book follows Eddie as he grows up in Florida and later tries out numerous jobs; drug dealer, fashion designer, lawyer, stand-up comic, writer, and chef. The two halves of the book don’t seem to fit together. The beginning is all about his childhood friends and the fights they got into in Florida. The second half turns into a foodie memoir with incredibly detailed descriptions of the food served in his restaurant. There are moments of sincerity and insightfulness in this book, but not nearly enough.

Colorful "unconventional" American born Taiwanese immigrant who grew up or educated in Pittsburgh, Virginia, Orlando and NYC, made it big in NYC's Asian food scene 5 days before his 28th birthday.
Fresh Off the Boat premieres on Feb. 4: Eddie Huang is a is a renaissance man with a string of careers: lawyer, TV host, restaurateur and author. His raw, funny and sometimes extremely profane memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, came out two years ago. It's a brutally honest story about his life as an Asian-American kid, reconciling two cultures.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/01/18/378103310/fresh-off-the-boat-repackages-the-asian-american-story-for-tv

This is an interesting story about a young man whose parents came from China, and became, through hard work, successful restaurant owners. Their son, though, is another story. He gets into nothing but trouble in school, feeling disenfranchised by The American Dream even though his parents are living proof of that dream, and he benefitted from it at all times. He goes through many tribulations of his own devices; graduates from law school only to become, like his father, a restaurant owner. His love of food is apparent; his love of minor criminal activity is also. What undoes him is his love of street slang (which is inappropriately funny; many of us have met that person from another language who has picked up so much American slang that they become almost completely impossible to understand, and this guy is him!) He is really focused on being COOL, which is hilarious in anyone over 18, and he is still carrying this banner into his 30's! The way this story is written will make it a classic many years from now, as an archaic example of early 2000's slang, which, I suppose, makes this book worth reading?

I really enjoyed reading about Huang's experiences as an Asian American, his critical comments about racism, his voice, which ranges from academic to street. I was hoping for more of a food memoir than a coming-of-age memoir, but it was still a fun ride.

Quotes

I was a Chinese-American kid raised by hip-hop and basketball with screaming, yelling, abusive parents in the background. If that makes me a rotten banana, well, tell it like it is.
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From the people at Christian Fellowship to First Academy to my parents to Confucius to thousands of years of ass-backwards Chinese thinking, I knew how it felt. Everything my parents did to me and their parents did to them was justified under the banner of Tradition, Family, and Culture.
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Important distinction. Note that I say “a voice” not “the voice.” I don’t speak for all Asian Americans, I speak for a few rotten bananas like me.

My mom always wanted to send food back. Everything on the side, some things hot, some things cold, no MSG, less oil, more chilis, oh, and some vinegar please. Black vinegar with green chilis if you have it, if not, red vinegar with ginger, and if you don’t have that, then just white vinegar by itself and a can of Coke, not diet because diet causes cancer.
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sell. I spent the first five years of my life handcuffed to a playpen in the middle of this mini-mall furniture-store office. Before I even knew about guns, I was trying to shoot myself.